Advertisement

Seven given life terms over 2015 Tunisia attacks which killed 60, including 31 Britons

Thirty Britons died in the Sousse resort massacre in 2015. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA

Seven people have been jailed for life following a trial over two 2015 terror attacks in Tunisia which killed 60 people, including 31 Britons.

Samir Ben Amor, a lawyer for one of the 44 defendants, said the verdicts were handed down over a massacre at the popular Sousse resort and another deadly attack on the country’s famous Bardo Museum.

Thirty Britons were killed in the mass shooting in Sousse which left 38 people dead, while another UK citizen died in the Bardo assault, which killed 22 in total.

Other defendants received jail terms ranging from 16 years to six months, while the charges against 27 of the suspects were dismissed, according to Mr Ben Amor.

None of the defendants received the maximum penalty of capital punishment for a range of charges that include premeditated murder, threatening national security and belonging to an extremist-linked group.

The suspected mastermind of both attacks, Chamseddine Sandi, has not yet been caught and is thought to be hiding in Libya.

Police say the defendants denied having participated directly in the March and June 2015 attacks during their questioning, but several of them acknowledged having provided logistical assistance to Sandi.

On March 18 2015 at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, 22 people were killed by extremists. Two of the gunmen were killed by police.

Tourists were laid on sun loungers on this beach when the gunman attacked. Credit: PA

Three months later, on June 26 in the coastal city of Sousse, attacker Aymen Rezgui walked onto the beach of the Imperial Hotel and used an assault rifle to shoot tourists, killing 38 people, including 30 Britons.

Rezgui, a Tunisian student who trained with Libyan militants, was killed about 15 minutes later by police.